The last fruit of this vintage arrived on Wednesday, just seven tons of Syrah off our estate vineyard. We have continued to work on pressing finished red ferments all week as well, not to mention racking them to barrel and inoculating them for malolactic fermentation. The majority of our white ferments are completing primary fermentation, so we worked on degassing, sulphuring, and racking quite a few tanks.

Today marks my final day of 2012 vintage. After taking a
year sabbatical from winemaking, I was excited to be back at it this
vintage. This was my tenth vintage split between California and New Zealand. It was also my third at Niven Family Wine Estates and I'm glad to have returned; I really like the crew here and we had an excellent vintage in terms of wine quality here in Edna Valley.

I'm excited to decompress and relax for a couple months before starting my next contract. I haven't finalized my plans quite yet but I'm hoping to travel to Australia for vintage 2013 after a short holiday in Bali and the Philippines with Kristin.